In Tunisia, the political future seems to be moving away from the democratic path. Clashes took place on Saturday, June 4, between the police and a hundred demonstrators who were protesting in the capital Tunis against a referendum planned for next July by President Kaïs Saïed. A year after his coup, described as a coup d’etat by the opposition, his popularity rating seems to be eroding in this country strangled by an economic crisis. Some participants in the protest organized by five smaller parties held up signs that read “President’s Commission = Fraud Commission”.
Since July 25, 2021, Kaïs Saïed, ensuring to act in the interest of Tunisia in the face of politico-economic blockages, concentrates all the powers and directs the country by decree-laws, raising fears of an autocratic drift in the cradle of the Arab Spring. The president’s opponents accuse him of leading the country towards autocracy and of wanting to set up a docile electoral body before the referendum and the legislative elections, scheduled for December 17.
- July 25, 2021: Parliament’s activities frozen
The Tunisian president announces on July 25, 2021 that he is freezing the activities of parliament and dismissing the head of government, Hichem Mechichi, after a day of protests against Tunisian leaders. Horns sound in the streets of Tunis shortly after this announcement.
This twist shakes the young Tunisian democracy, which has been functioning since the adoption, in 2014, of a compromise Constitution according to a mixed parliamentary system, in which the president has the prerogatives of diplomacy and security.
- September 22, 2021: new exceptional measures
On September 22, 2021, the master of Carthage formalized his coup de force of July 25 by promulgating exceptional provisions strengthening his powers to the detriment of the government and Parliament, which he will de facto replace by legislating by decree.
These provisions, which tend to presidentialize the hybrid system of government framed by the 2014 Constitution, provoke the ire of the Islamist-inspired party Ennahdha, main rival of Kaïs Saïed, in a country plagued by divisions and successive political crises these last years. Note that the Ennahdha party has controlled Parliament and the various governments for the past ten years, after the fall of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and the 2011 revolution.
“The legislative texts are taken in the form of decree-laws and promulgated by the President of the Republic”, stipulates one of the articles decided by Kaïs Saïed and published in the Official Journal. Questioned by L’Express on September 23, Aude-Annabelle Canesse, expert with multilateral and bilateral cooperation organizations reacted: “It must be understood that the decree-laws are not subject to appeal for annulment. The president is- he alone to lead Tunisia? The decrees leave no shadow of a doubt.”
- February 5, 2022: Kaïs Saïed dissolves the Judicial Council, which he considers biased
Kaïs Saïed crossed a new red line on February 5, 2022. He made the decision to dissolve the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM), which oversees justice, accusing it of bias and serving political interests. “The CSM is a thing of the past from this moment,” said the president in a video released overnight where we see him chatting with ministers. He accuses this independent constitutional body of corruption and of having slowed down procedures, such as the investigations into the 2013 assassinations of left-wing activists.
In the morning show of the private radio station Express FMYoussef Bouzakher, the president of the Superior Council of the Judiciary specifies that the police were deployed in front of the premises of the CSM, prohibiting all the staff from entering it.
According to observers, the law professor is targeting the Ennahdha party. “In this council, positions and appointments are sold and made according to affiliations”, affirms the Head of State, adding: “you cannot imagine the money that certain judges have been able to receive, billions and Billions”. A spokesman for Ennahdha, Imed Khemiri, denounces to AFP “a serious precedent that Tunisia has never had to undergo, including during the dictatorship” of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (1987-2011) .
Created in 2016, the CSM is an independent body for appointing judges. It is made up of 45 magistrates, two-thirds of whom are elected by Parliament and who themselves appoint the remaining third. For its part, the European Union is quietly alarmed, saying it is “concerned” by this decision.
- March 30, 2022: dissolution of Parliament
President Kaïs Saïed is once again banging on Tunisian democratic rules. On March 30, 2022, he announced the dissolution of Parliament, without committing to the holding of early legislative elections within three months, as provided for in the Constitution. This new authoritarian turn of the screw comes eight months after having suspended him to assume full powers, in July 2021.
Kais Saied makes the statement during a meeting of the “National Security Council” which he chairs, hours after deputies defied the suspension of Parliament by organizing a virtual session, during which they voted to cancel the exceptional measures since decided by the president.
Here again, the Tunisian head of state seems to be targeting the Islamists of Ennahdha and its satellite parties, since Parliament was concentrating the anger of Tunisians, on which the Tunisian head of state had surfed to seize power. In the wake of this announcement, Washington said it was “deeply concerned” by the Tunisian president’s decision to dissolve parliament, calling for a rapid return to “constitutional government”.
- April 22, 2022: the president takes the right to appoint the head of the Electoral Authority
The Tunisian president assumes, on April 22, 2022, the right to appoint the head of the Electoral Authority, a few months before a referendum and a legislative ballot that this body must supervise. According to a decree published by the Official Journal, the Head of State will appoint three of the seven members of the Independent High Authority for Elections (Isie), including the president.
Isie, created by virtue of an organic law in 2012, has nine members in its current structure, including a president appointed by Parliament. The current president of Isie, Nabil Baffoun, is a critic of Kaïs Saïed’s coup. He warns that any change in its composition by presidential order would be “illegal”. On May 9, the Tunisian president appoints Farouk Bouasker, a former member of Isie, president of this body to replace Nabil Baffoun.
Kaïs Saïed’s opponents accuse him of wanting to set up a docile electoral body before the organization of the referendum and the legislative ballot. On April 22, the independent Tunisian news site Business News enjoys ironically renaming Isie the “Dependent Presidential Authority for the Elections”.
- May 12, 2022: Kaïs Saïed against the presence of foreign observers in the elections
The Tunisian President expresses on May 12, 2022 his hostility to the presence of foreign observers in the next elections scheduled in Tunisia, during the swearing in of new members of the Electoral Authority. “We are not a State under occupation so that we are sent observers”, he insists during this swearing-in ceremony at the presidential palace for the new members of Isie.
- June 2, 2022: dismissal of 57 magistrates
The Tunisian head of state dismisses, on Thursday, June 2, 2022, nearly 60 magistrates for corruption and obstruction of investigations, after having reinforced his supervision over the judicial system. A list of 57 magistrates was published overnight in the Official Journal in a decree justifying their dismissal for “concealment of terrorist affairs”, “corruption”, “sexual harassment”, “collusion” with political parties and “disruption of the functioning of Justice”.
Among the dismissed magistrates who could be prosecuted are a former spokesman for the counter-terrorism unit, a former director general of customs and the former president of the CSM. The dismissals also concern magistrates suspected of having obstructed the investigation into the 2013 assassinations of two left-wing leaders, Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi, attributed to jihadists.
In reaction, the spokesperson for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Stephane Dujarric, expressed his concern: “We are concerned by recent developments in Tunisia and continue to closely monitor the situation in the country.”